Welcome to this 100% online section of "Introduction to Business" at De Anza College. This course is NOT available in De Anza's Catalyst system. Instead, it uses a state-of-the art interactive multimedia online course delivery system called McGraw-Hill Connect. You will need an access code in order to access the course website for the entire quarter. You can access the course materials for a limited time without an access code by clicking the "Start Free Trial" button, but I believe that only gives you access to the course materials for 7 days.

If you buy a used textbook, you will have to pay $39.99 over and above the cost of the textbook in order to get access to the course website for the whole quarter. Only if you buy the custom textbook NEW from the De Anza College bookstore will it come bundled with a McGraw-Hill Connect registration card. This card will contain a one-time-use access code that will give you full access to the course materials for the quarter.

The textbook for this course is Selected Materials from Understanding Business by Nickels, McHugh & McHugh, 9th edition. This is a custom textbook containing only the chapters we will be using. If you prefer, you can use the full length textbook, provided it is the NINTH EDITION of Understanding Business by Nickels, McHugh, and McHugh; but of course, the full textbook will not come bundled with a McGraw-Hill Connect registration card, so if you buy the full textbook, whether new or used, you will have to pay $39.99 over and above the cost of the textbook in order to purchase access to the course website online, just as you would if you bought a used custom textbook.

This is a 5 unit course, so success in this course will require an estimated 6-10 hours of your time per week for 12 weeks.

McGraw-Hill Connect is a "course management system." In it, hundreds of instructors have created thousands of courses, so your first challenge in taking this course is to find MY course within the McGraw-Hill Connect system. Each underlined occurrence of the expression "McGraw-Hill Connect" in this orientation will take you directly to my course. You can also find my course using McGraw-Hill Connect's search tools, but that is more difficult, should be unnecessary, and I will not be covering how to do that in these instructions. After clicking on one of the underlined occurrences of the expression "McGraw-Hill Connect" in this orientation, you should probably bookmark that site in your browser so you can easily find it in the future.

Hours of Study

Be prepared to spend a minimum of 6 hours per week using and studying the course materials.

How to get started in your course

One of the many advantages of taking this course in the McGraw-Hill Connect system instead of Catalyst is that you can get a head start on the course material! In fact, ALL of the course material is available RIGHT NOW. That's right! This may be the ONLY distance learning course you are taking right now that allows you to get started on the course material before the quarter begins!

To get started, click on any of the underlined occurrences of the expression McGraw-Hill Connect that appear on this page. Make sure the COURSE says "Introduction to Business Spring 2013" and the SECTION says "Sections 64Z and 65Z". If they do not, send me an email at lillybyron@fhda.edu, because it means I have made an error. Click the "REGISTER NOW" button. Enter your usual email address and click the "Submit" button. This brings you to a screen where you have three ways to proceed. You can enter the 20 digit registration code from the registration card that came with your new custom textbook into the spaces provided and click the "Submit" button, or you can click the "Buy Online" button and follow the prompts to complete the registration process using a credit card, or you can get free temporary access to the site by clicking the "Start Free Trial" button and following the prompts.

IMPORTANT WARNING: You must register on the course website using one of the three payment methods described above by Sunday, April 14, 2013. It is YOUR responsibility to remember to do that. If you forget, I will DROP YOU FROM THE COURSE on April 15th and you will not be able to add back.

THIS PARAGRAPH IS IMPORTANT

There are two links in this paragraph, either of which will take you to a video walking you through the process of completing your McGraw-Hill Connect registration step by step. This link is the second link, the underlined word "video" in the first sentence in this paragraph is the other link. I am actually using the Fall 2012 version of the video, so it will tell you to make sure it says "Introduction to Business Fall 2012" under COURSE and "Section 62Z" under SECTION, but this quarter, it should instead say "Introduction to Business Spring 2013" under COURSE and "Sections 64Z and 65Z" under SECTION.

In total, you must do FOUR things to stay in this course:
1. Register for the course either online through De Anza's "MyPortal" system or in person at the Admissions and Records office on the De Anza campus by the applicable deadlines. See the De Anza College Spring Admissions and Registration Calendar for the applicable deadlines.
2. Pay your course fees by the applicable deadlines.
3. Register for my specific course located in a specific place within the massive McGraw-Hill Connect system by Sunday, April 14, 2013 and
4. Earn at least 800 points in the course by Sunday, May 12, 2013.

You must do ALL FOUR of the above to avoid being dropped from this course. There are some very important, required, orientation videos available in the "Welcome Activities" topic group inside the course website. These will explain how you go about earning points in the course. I recommend you watch them as soon as possible. Click the blue (some people would call it turquoise) phrase "Welcome Activities" to expand that topic and reveal the links to the videos grouped under that topic. Let me know if you have any questions about how to do any of these four things after you have watched these welcome videos.

Finally, be sure to DROP YOURSELF from the course by Friday, May 31, 2013 if you do not want to continue in the course. There is no way to drop after that, so if you pass my four hurdles above, YOU are responsible for dropping yourself by this deadline if for any reason you do not want to complete the course. You would use the MyPortal system to drop yourself. I will also do the drop for you if you make your request to me by Thursday, May 30, 2013.